Pages

Monday, January 28, 2013

Full Circle: International Training of Mystery

We have been very focused on Brio Birth, a particularly pernicious scam in the birth community. However, the name of this blog is Birth Scam Report, and as such we wish to protect the birth community from any and all scams.

One such concern raised has been a placental encapsulation training from Full Circle Encapsulation. This training, based on information received, has taken place at various locations in the United States and Australia. There has apparently been pretty universal dissatisfaction with both the content and the conduct of the trainings. A letter from Australia reads:

It is with considerable regret that we in Australia are contacting birth workers throughout our beautiful global community, but at this stage we feel we have no other option than to share our experience with other hard working, well intentioned women.Like many of you, we are very committed to women and their families and as Midwives, Doulas and Childbirth Educators, we are always looking to expand our education to further support women during their perinatal period. It was with some excitement that we organised and welcomed Amanda Johnson, of Full Circle Encapsulation in America, into our Community and our homes, as many of us are increasingly getting requests about placenta encapsulation. The plan was for her to visit 3 of our states. She delivered her training to New South Whales and Victoria, but cancelled the Werstern Australia training the day before it was scheduled to start, due to low numbers. This was extremely disappointing to say the least, particularly regarding the short notice as all participants had made special arrangements around personal and work responsibilities in order to attend this training.The hosts involved in NSW and Vic were very generous in their hospitality with Amanda, and in organising the courses. A financial remuneration had been agreed upon, as part of a signed contract, prior to the training.Amanda returned to America after the NSW and VIC trainings, and the WA women waited for their refunds (some $3000 in total), and waited and waited. Emails were sent, requesting, begging and demanding refunds, but no replies were received in return. Eventually, a single email was received by one of the disappointed attendees to say that Amanda had had a financial situation and was unable to refund at this time. Obviously this was completely unacceptable to us and at this stage, the other hosts became involved and an almost daily communication from them and ourselves FINALLY led to most of us being reimbursed. At this stage, there is still money outstanding and certainly no form of an apology has been issued.Unfortunately, during this time, it became evident that Amanda had also not paid the hosts. Money was owed for venue, food, materials and a small percentage for organising the training. The hosts in NSW and VIC have tried communicating with Amanda but her sporadic replies are consistently vague and sketchy.We gave her many weeks ( months now) to reply to our emails, but over time it became obvious that the unthinkable had happened, and that we have all in fact been misled.We are still waiting for the hosts to be refunded, but were really torn as to whether we should warn other women about this organisation. We are a compassionate, caring community of women who work very hard and respectfully with women, and the very last thing we would want to do it to cause stress to another woman ( we all have families and understand life can throw some challenges)However, it has just come to our attention that Amanda has again taken payment for another course, in America this time and then cancelled the day before training. So, we no longer feel hesitant in potentially damaging Amanda’s reputation by sharing this information. We just want to warn women, Midwives, Doulas and Childbirth Educators out there, that there are more reputable places to train. It is with heavy hearts that we share this experience with the birthing community, but we feel that it is our duty to inform our fellow birth workers so that they can avoid similar issues. We have tried everything to work with Amanda, given her every chance to come good on her promises but she has let us all down time and time again.

Another report from a training in the United States reads:

The training itself was disappointing... It was a year ago, so I hope things have improved. But she gave us binders and training consisted of taking turns reading out of it. At the beginning, someone asked how she became qualified to certify encapsulators. The short answer was she googled it. She didn't give us a list of necessary tools so we didn't have enough gloves... I don't think the information was accurate... and the promised "hands on from beginning to end" was laughable. Since she stayed with me, we had more of a conversation and she told me how some one said it was "the best training they'd ever taken." I can't fathom who would say that.
This experience was evidently similar to that of the trainees in Australia. The sources quoted above want the birth community to know that this may not be the best option for a training in placental encapsulation, and that signing up may result in a loss of hard-earned money, whether due to a training cancellation with no refund, or due to inferior training.

It seems that many in the birth community are learning the hard way to do research on organizations offering training before investing their money and/or their reputations.

65 comments:

since the entire thing with Brio, I've been very wary of doing other things as well. I did do Gena Kirby's rebozo training via web and later found out she has lifted this information. I felt really strange about it afterward. I think it might be nice to start a tab of organizations that scam and organizations that don't. Kind of like a birth community yelp.

To start: I was someone scammed by Brio... that lovely logo you see was my design that I was not fully compensated for. So I'm naturally wary about everything. I took a placenta encapsulation workshop (not Full Circle) in 2010 from a local trainer and started providing encapsulation. In 2012 I decided to take Full Circle's training via Skype to deepen my knowledge. I found the training to be much more in depth than the initial workshop I took. The materials provided were great. I didn't find anything lacking in what was taught. Even though I was already experienced, I found the information helpful and Amanda knowledgable. If anything negative can be said for Amanda it is that doing all of this training and certifying by herself is a big task and sometimes (not always) she is slow to respond or a little forgetful. But overall my opinion of her and the training is very high. I'm not sure why but there seems to be a rotating hate of placenta encapsulation trainers. PBI went through a long period of persecution too. I can only speak to my personal experience and I have no reason to believe that Full Circle isn't a reputable company.

Emily, thank you for your input. I have published what I have received from multiple sources, and I am glad to have any and all experiences posted in order to shine as much light as possible on every situation. It is important for everyone to have all sides of a story and make an informed decision. I am glad to hear you had a beneficial experience.

You are welcome. There are always two sides to a story. I don't claim to know everything but I did email Amanda directly and ask for information about the "Australia situation". If anyone is interested in that info I suggest they just simply ask: FullCircleEncapsulation@gmail.com

Emily, there is not a rotating hate of Placenta encapsulators, and if that is what you gained from this letter, I suggest you read it again, through the eyes of women that have been hurt and conned by Amandas lack of professionalism and integrity. It may be that she gave you some good information, but our experience was absolutely the opposite and infact since we circulated this letter, we have been inundated with emails from women all over the globe with similar experiences to us. It looks like our experience is more common than yours. We are also happy to be contacted, we have copies of all communication, leading up to the training.. during the training and the months since...trying to resolve the situation. Lisa

I don't doubt that you are very upset by your situation Lisa. Having worked in some type of service employment for the last 12 years, I can say for every irate customer there are usually dozens who were perfectly happy with the service and blissfully unaware that other people are dissatisfied. I think you are taking a very broad brush to say that your experience is more common than mine. How many hundreds of women have trained under Amanda and are satisfied? I don't know and you don't know. I'm certain that you are easily attracting all the dissatisfied voices to yourself but that doesn't mean you can claim that EVERY student of Amanda's is unhappy. I've taken dozens of trainings in the childbirth related professions over the years. Some of them were stellar, some of them were adequate and some of them did not meet expectations. It's just the way of things. Even if I don't like the way in which something was taught, as long as the information that was taught was accurate I take it and move on.

I am genuinely glad that it worked out for you Emily. I would have loved nothing more than to have had positive experiences with Full Circle. Sadly, it wasnt the case. We wrote the letter, not to break her business, or stop anyone from training with her, but simply to warn any woman that enters into any contract with Amanda, to go in eyes wide open. I can tell you, after 14 years in Birth, it was a shock to me to be so poorly treated by a co - birth worker. But, live and learn. Now, having had to deal with this situation for the last 4 months, I have let it go, no longer upset, or angry. Just pleased that this situation has ended in our Australian Community coming together , acting in sisterhood. For every negative, there is always a positive, and its an awesome positive.

Unfortunately the way this open letter is perceived by me and I'm sure others is that you are, in fact, trying to break her business and stop people from training with her. Like I said I can only judge someone by the experience I have had directly with them. So far, my experience with Amanda has been positive. I can acknowledge that other people have had the opposite experience but until I have the same experience, I will stick to the facts that I know to be true. I'm sure you feel the same way in reverse.It so happens that I will get to expand my experience with Amanda. She scheduled a training some time ago in my local area for this upcoming weekend. Just this last week I have agreed to let her use my home for the workshop. I'm happy to report back honestly what my experience is dealing with her in person. To be clear, I have not been promised ANY type of renumeration for the use of my home and encapsulation supplies.

Amanda would be a fool to be anything other than perfect for your workshop. I hope she has finally heard and understood how she has hurt people and approaches her training with a little more awareness now. We didnt want to hurt her or her business, inspite of your perception. But by the same token, we did not want anyone else to go through our experience. Honestly, I hope your workshop is awesome.

I took a training from Full Circle and have been SHOCKED at how terrible the business practices are. The info in the actual in person training was great. Anything besides has basically been horrendous. I've read in a Full Circle group people asking for things they have paid for months ago and not received, including certification, and hard copy training manuals (which you think would be included in the price of the training). People have become pretty sour in the group and it is completely understandable. I myself have not received my hard copy manual that I paid for almost two months ago and no one seems to have any answers other than jerked around with answers that seem to be untrue over and over. A person even mentioned what a joke it all was.Someone in the group I trained with was the closest to guess the amount of placenta capsules that a placenta had given and they were promised a bag of capsules, but last I knew, after a month or so had still not received them. I also had heard the trainer mention to one of the gals that she would give her a discount (on the training) for letting her use her brand new supplies since there was a mess with the bags with the airlines. Last I asked, the gal had sent a few emails asking about the discount, which she then said she had been told she would be comped, but had gotten nothing back from the trainer. Shady. Such BS! I feel at this point like warning people about these shady practices. People are being taken advantage of and it is not right. Oh, and another girl in our group was taxed when she shouldn't have been. None of the rest of us were either... she has asked numerous times about it and also heard nothing back. Please be careful who you choose for your training.

I too signed up for training through Full Circle in March of 2014. I liked the idea of being able to take the online self-paced training course. After receiving the two emails that included the training guide and the research articles I have not been able to reach Amanda through email or by letter. I finished the training assessments and had some questions about the requirements and the time in which to submit and to this date those have not been answered. One of my questions and frustrations was that I did not want to have to join Facebook in order to receive my training since this is mainly how notifications of skyping sessions occur I was told. I asked for an alternative. The training material itself contained some good information but was not in any organized manner and just kind of "all over the place." The only video provided was of a cord burning and no actual demonstration material was provided of an encapsulation. I realize now that the money is gone and I am not likely to get any response so I have continued by taking the approved state courses in food safety and blood borne pathogens and will have my husband, who is an RN, "certify" me after I do 3 encapsulations for women. Thank you for posting the above so that I know I am not the only one who has been disappointed with the "product" I bought. Just wish I had read this sooner.

Sorry, but I'm confused by the statement: "I did do Gena Kirby's rebozo training via web and later found out she has lifted this information." What info was "lifted"? I have never taken her training and don't know her, but I am curious as to what you are referring to.

I don't have this DVD but was told all her stuff comes from http://cuttingedgepress.net/cep/products.asp?cat=26

I don't trust Gena Kirby. She also took Gina TFB words to raise money to be at the MBOBB premier in LA and when warned of BB was thankful and then proceeded to support them and was added as an admin of BPI. She was part of deleting people from that group. Just be careful when dealing with her.

The Gena Kirby Rebozo training that I attended was advertised to be an 8 hour training and it was hardly four hours. Many attempts to get a clarification on the length of the training, were ignored. The product that I bought was never mailed and when she finally gave it to me it was not what I ordered. She insisted that it was what I ordered. She also stated that she can't guarantee what comes in to her when she orders a rebozo from her source and this reality is a chance everyone has to take. This fact should be on her website.

The training was a far cry from professional. Her presentations were haphazard by never mentioning safety precautions for mom and for baby. She is quite the actress and stand up comic however, lacked profoundly in offering a training in rebozo technique.

There is speculation that DONA doulas are acting as hosts where ever she goes and helps organize the training.

Also, I took a rebozo workshop from her a few months ago, and found it greatly disappointing. Not only was she over an hour late on both days, we did not get the full 6 hours of instruction (more like 10:30-3ish, with an hour for lunch), but I found her demeanor off-putting and rude. And as far as I understand, the organizers had some problems with her as well (i.e., GK was not meeting her end of the contract).

It was a waste of money, and I'm not sure there's anything I learned that I couldn't have made up or found on google.

I have had interactions with Amanda Johnson in the past. I was hired along with 4 other women as specialists for Full Circle so that she could focus her energy on teaching. She told us that because FC was so well known, no promoting would be necessary and that any placenta clients she received she would pass onto one of us. Plus with there being multiple specialists, we could have a back-up in the event of an emergency or if one of us was out of town. It sounded ideal, and a great way to supplement my husband's income. We each paid her $160, a discount for encapsulation instruction/training and did a weekend training at her home. Several of us did "pickups" for her clients that she was not available for, and received none of the promised compensation of $30. Also she took over a week to pick up this placenta, when she told us in training the capsules need to be back to the mother in 72 hours. Another specialist drove over an hour and did a professional interview with editing, and was promised compensation that was never provided. Weeks would go by at a time and we would not hear from her, or get any response to emails or calls and texts. When we would hear from her, it would be about an upcoming expo and that we needed to each pitch in for a table, or that she was sorry that business was so slow. Meanwhile she was posting that it was "raining placentas!" After several months we all got together with Amanda and confronted her about the lack of communication, as well as the lack of work. She admitted that she had not marketed herself in the 6 months before she hired us on, which was the opposite of what she told us during the interview process. She tried to play the victim and use how "busy" she is as an excuse for basically failing to return on her promises and what she owed to those who had already completed work for her. I feel like at the time she may have needed another set of hands, and settled on 5, when the $800 up front was too hard to say no to. And she may have had every intention of passing on clients but that money is too hard to turn down regardless of if she knows she can't take on anymore work. Bottom line is she is a hot mess of a birth "professional" and I will never recommend her training to anyone or work with her willingly.

I am another one of the specialists that was hired by FC to do encapsulations since Amanda was just so busy with teaching that she didn't have time to offer the encapsulation service. At the time of hiring, we were told that she had so many clients and made it sound like we would have lots of clients every month. We were told that we would find our own clients and she had lots of clients to spread out among everyone else. All of the specialists paid $160 for the training. We didn't actually get to do a hands on training at that time. We were finally able to do a hands on training when another one of the hired specialists booked a client. That specialist had a very difficult time getting the correct paperwork from Amanda to have her client sign.

The only time we were contacted for work was when she wanted us to attend expos and contribute financially. It seemed that she wanted business investors, not employees. Basically we paid for the training, then we were supposed to find our own clients, and pay her a portion of the $ we rec'd from the clients we booked. Great scheme for her, not so much for us. There was one expo we all attended and worked. We were told that the clients would be split among all of us to contact. No one rec'd any clients to contact. When questioned, Amanda said that none of them were interested, but we really have no way to know if that is true.

I drove to interview a TCM practitioner for Amanda. The TCM practitioner said that the lemon, pepper, ginger concoction that Amanda taught during her training could do more harm than good. It was at that point that I began to question my training. I believe that Amanda has now changed her steaming/herb process, but I do not know that for sure.

I am sorry to hear you both had horrible experiences. I know how this feels and want to say I BELIEVE YOU!!!! I've had a hard time dealing with the entire brio thing and have felt that I don't ever get that validation. Here's to a new venture in learning more and supporting women they way they deserve!

Thank you Empathy :-) And to the 2 women that posted above, I am so sorry that you have also experienced the negative aspects of Full Circle. I hope that you have by now found a new direction with your training and have as much work as you want, I absolutely understand your frustrations. Its a horrible experience, getting so burnt by another, especially when you think you are the only one and no one believes you. And although sad to have been put in this position, it simply validates the fact that our letter was necessary assomething had to change and hopefully the letter was the catalyst for that. People can't be treated so poorly without word eventually getting out. Only time will tell.Lisa

I'm not saying that it's a good excuse for not being in good communication or for poor business practices, but did you happen to have any idea that her son was diagnosed with a serious health condition within the last six months? I can't imagine what that would do to my world.

Her son does NOT have a serious health condition. This is just another excuse she has come up with to avoid taking responsibility. Whenever she has an obligation she can not meet, she claims there is something wrong with her children, that she had to take them to the hospital, etc. I wonder why social services hasn't checked out her situation after all the instances she has claimed she has had to take them to the hospital.

We were made aware that her son was sick, after she took our money and cancelled the training. She continues to run courses and still has not refunded women or reimbursed them. She has stopped communicating with us altogether. It is now clear that she has no intention of paying the $1000's that she owes. We are all mothers and all have our own personal situations and yet none of us would ever think of doing what she has done.

I am happy that I stumbled upon this website I have been here before when I was searching for Midwifery schools and Brio popped up. It is very disappointing to hear what all of those people are having to go through in Australia especially since it sounds as though they will never get their money back. I reached out to Amanda SEVERAL times via contact form, e-mail, and by phone to get information about the course and never heard back. After searching for a different placenta encapsulation program and only really hearing about Full Circe I tried e-mailing her one last time this time she replied saying that never received any of my communication attempts (I should have known then to steer clear!) even though I left her a voicemail. After exchanging a few e-mails I decided that I felt comfortable with the program and signed up & paid for the self paced course once I signed I never heard back from her no e-mail with a link, no phone call, nothing. I have e-mailed her several times but it is as though she dropped off the face of the earth after taking my money.

To the poster above that stated her son has medical problems... I totally get that but they key is COMMUNICATION if you don't have the time/resources/energy to manage a business hire help or take a leave of absence. Don't just leave paying clients hanging or worse just take the money and run.

I am going to give her a few more days in good faith that she will respond to my e-mails and I can just start the course before I report her to the BBB and place a dispute with Paypal.

Thanks again to the creators of this site. I don't think you are bashing people you are making them aware of shady business practices!

Thank you for sharing your experience, although it actually makes me feel sick, that she has infact learnt nothing from this whole experience. Inspite of her "open letter" that she recently released,stating the oppositePlease don't grant Amanda with any good faith, she has none. I can not tell you how many times she claimed to send emails ( that we never got) and the many many many emails that we sent, that she never received. I don"t know what she email service she uses, but it has to be the single most unreliable system on the planet.... if her "excuses" are to be believed.Do yourself a favour and put the dispute in. We know that paypal have talked about investigating the business for fraud and the more complaints they receive , the more likely it is that this will happen. She hasn't learnt a thing about conducting an ethical business. I am so sorry and hope that you get your money back from Paypal VERY soon.

As Anonymous 2:45 said, file now. PayPal does have limits to file the claim, and if you pass them, you'll have a very difficult time getting your money back. However, Amanda totally has a bad track record, and I think you should just get your money back and continue to look elsewhere for the training and information you want.

Quick question. Has any legal action been taken against her? Because she will never learn if someone doesn't. And if someone has, I would like to get in contact with you because I would like/need this information for my own case against her. But it needs to be done privately.

This was her open letter response:"To my fellow Birth Workers and Full Circle Specialists,It is never easy to admit when you have fallen short of duty, made a mistake or not handled something as efficiently and professionally as you could or should have. I am sure many of you have read the post regarding Full Circle and the experience in Australia. I think that it is important to address what happened and what changes Full Circle is implementing to ensure that it doesn't occur again.

Full Circle traveled to Australia to teach 3 workshops regarding placenta encapsulation. The first training was in Victoria, the second in Sydney and the third in Perth. The first two workshops went off without a hitch. The third training, scheduled for Perth only 3 weeks prior was having a lot of issues with registration and obtaining the required amount of attendees to hold the training. The host and I worked together consistently to ensure that the training would be able to be held, even trying to get last minute attendees through discount the day before the training was scheduled to take place. It was clear that being 14 below minimum, it would not happen. I offered many options to try to avoid cancellation, but in the end the host and I agreed to cancel the workshop. Only being in Australia for a short time longer, we were unable to reschedule and give the host more time to promote. Not having expected to incur an extra weeks’ worth of airfare and other expenses really hindered the rate at which I was able to refund the ladies that had already registered and paid. I offered the training free of charge along with their refund and an apology realizing that the last minute cancellation was extremely inconvenient for everyone. I was out of pocket with expenses in the end and returned to the States. It took me quite a long time to get these ladies paid back in full. The hosts from the other two trainings had a minimum of 20 attendees to meet and the host in Victoria was able to fulfill that request.

I am still working to pay her share of the training back. Looking in hindsight and into the future, Full Circle will be contracting the hosts to take all registrations and payments. The hosts for the trainings will be responsible for refunding if needed and to also pay Full Circle their fee for teaching the training. This will ensure that this is a fair experience for everyone that that the host is completely aware of where the training stands at all times.I am one person running a company of over 250 specialists. I admit that I lack in responding to emails immediately and am forgetful at times. I make promises to get things done, often over work myself and these promises are sometimes unable to be fulfilled. To help with this and to ensure customer satisfaction for all, we have hired an accounts manager who is dealing with all funds that come into the company and will hold Full Circle’s fee until the training is confirmed. We are also opening up a trainer program for our specialists so that some of the training workload will be eased. Our ladies are extremely experienced, smart and wonderful to work with. I am very excited to extend the training materials for them to teach to others. For the workshops we are making a detailed presentation available immediately upon payment as well as all course materials so that the attendees can be prepared and ask any questions prior to the training. To ensure that all supplies are available for the demonstration portion, supplies will be mailed to the host the week before the training.We have implemented a new cancellation policy as of last week. If we have not met the minimum number of attendees within 10 days of the training, the training will automatically be rescheduled. Those that are unable to attend will receive the option of the online training with a coupon for half off tuition or a full refund taken care of by the host who will be handling payments. Full Circle will be offering 2 free scholarships per physical training and 3 free scholarships for online training each month. I feel strongly that professional placenta encapsulation training should be available regardless of finances. There will be an application process involved with the scholarships to make sure there is fair distribution.I want to apologize for the stress and anger that Full Circle has caused the Australian hosts and attendees. That was never the intention upon accepting the workshops. I am working to get the situation completely taken care of as quickly as possible on my end. I want to apologize to any of our specialists that this has affected. The specialists that Full Circle have trained are brilliant, caring, loving and definitely worth your time for inquiry of services. They receive on going education and are constantly asking questions, seeking new information and making sure that they offer the best possible services to their community. There are many new things to come, many things that have been learned and have humbled this company. Our goal is to see the changes that need to be made and to execute them proficiently to ensure complete satisfaction by everyone involved with Full Circle. Thank you."

This just boggles my mind. She refers to "us" and "we" when FC is clearly ONLY HER. There is NO business entity. Tax fraud, business fraud, theft. Seems like there is a laundry list she could go down for....and now across continents? Unfortunate that there are people like this making everyone look bad.

Its not just the Past Sarah, not only has the money never been refunded to one woman in WA, with THOUSANDS still owed to the hosts in Australia, but Amanda stopped communicating with the women here, that had hoped to continue with the certification process over here in Australia... which means she left Australia with plenty $$$$$$$$$$$$$ in her pocket and not ONE certified "encapsulation specialist" Not ONE fan over here .... she conned us all. |Karma.... catching up slowly ... cant wait.

This site was created with the 5 specialists as a way to expand the business through teaching workshops on the various aspects of natural parenting (cloth diapering, baby wearing, birth rights and choices, breast feeding (Amanda is an LC), etc) and had a full schedule for the summer with 2-3 workshops a month, but we could never get into contact with her about the details of the classes or even a location.

I just spent an entire weekend with Amanda and left feeling educated, excited, informed and well taken care of. I thought her training was everything I had hoped it was and as of now I am happy to be associated with Full Circle.

It's great that you had a good experience but, honestly, she has admitted to learning how to encapsulate from videos on youtube. Not exactly someone who should be certifying other people, I don't feel. Did you learn sterile technique over the weekend? I'm not talking the OSHA course. I'm talking real, in person sterile technique.

I just came across this. I attended her training and loved it. She did tell us how to sterilize yes. I also did all of my money handling through an account manager not her personally, although she allowed me to make payments which was so nice. It is sad to hear it didn't work out in Austrailia and while you can say you are not saying not to take her training you really are. It is more and more obvious with all the posts. She is one of how many certifying companies? And isn't that also the point where do people go and get their training if they are one of the first? She is trying to make sure all of her knowledge is available and adjusting as her company grows to make sure all of the best info is available. I will be glad when things begin to be regulated by counties to be part of a certifying organization that works hard to ensure encapsulation is happening the safest way possible. Making a comment about Facebooking people who plan to take her training is spiteful, good luck with that if you also plan to sue. I had a good experience and recommend her. With what ever happened she has learned and grown which is all we can ask from human beings. The host that never got her numbers where they needed to be, it sucks everyone should be compensated that was going to go but I wouldn't want to communicate with you either if you were this rude and didn't understand all the money that was spent trying to accommodate more time. offering for you to take other training and those that just wanted money back is unrealistic to any company. Most companies with training ONLY apply money to a later training not a refund. It would be nice to get an in person training but offering a virtual training was not really a con but trying to work it out with you. If you are being unreasonable and expecting what other companies wouldn't do isn't fair. It sound like you think it's different because she's the owner and is also the face of the company. A company has a responsibility to try to work things out not bend to each individual.

Very glad you loved the training, perhaps Amanda has really learnt about delivering her service... doesn't change the fact that she still owes the hosts in Australia a fair few dollars. Doesn't change the fact not one Australian woman was able to certify with her, even those that really wanted to. Nor does it change the fact that we were contacted by many many women across the world , with similar stories. Please understand, that it was months of one sided communication and a fair few broken promises , before we decided to take the public route. The shame of this is not our burden to carry.

I understand you feel slighted. Im sure in ways she did to trying fo stay longer to accommodate the class the host couldn't get enough people to. I'm sure it would suck to not be reimbursed. I'm sure it would also suck to spend extra money to stay longer trying to accommodate and wasting money. If this happened i would have done her virtual training, yes it's not quite the same but it was offered. Businesses do not just hand money back, especially when it wasn't her fault the training didn't happen in the one location.

You can say that you can see she's fixed many things yet here you are trying to drum up notice so that others don't take her training all because you feel slighted. For those that got the training move on, maybe you felt it was disorganized but you got the training and it's obvious you do not want to be affiliated with her so like i said move on.For those that paid for the training and didn't get to take it why are you not upset with your host for not getting the people needed, even with an extra few days? Why didn't you understand that the money Amanda spent to accommodate really shouldn't be refundable especially because she offered the virtual training? Because of the immediate demands and anger i wouldn't want to work with you either. You don't except her offers and expect her to just refund...To those that wanted to get certified with her obviously you wouldn't be apart of this. I could have sworn there were providers listed on her site i would have to check that.Last note of thought... I'm surprised you feel comfortable speaking for multiple people when they are not here to speak up for themselves.

I signed up for a physical workshop in DC. Last minute each time she was like "can you get people to come" I tried but supposedly not enough people signed up. I think it was rescheduled twice. She finally offered skype, I said no, that wasn't what I signed up for. She said she would give me a refund. Never did. Was hard to get a response from. Assured me I would a few more times. My friend said she would take the workshop in my place and pay me back herself. Amanda approved this, but my friend had trouble getting in contact with her Amanda lied about sending her materials. My friend has since decided not to go through with her. I plan on filling a complain with the BBB. Someone else already has for the same reason. Please, anyone who has experienced this, complain.

Why wouldn't you trust any Full Circle certified encapsulators? That seems a little far fetched. Why would her certified PE's have anything to do with how Amanda runs her own business? They did their training, followed instructions and worked hard to get their certifications. Not sure why someone would just not "trust any Full Circle "certified" encapsulators". I have had issues with Amanda of my own, but find no reason why there should be issues otherwise. Seriously.

This is an amazing blog. I am interested in going through the training and certification process for placenta encapsulation. What training companies are out there for California who hold a good reputation?As far as Amanda goes.....she should have reimbursed all parties concerned even if it meant taking out a LOAN !!!

And now they're another full thread on fb pif women who have paid asks not recieved their certification, supplies or some no responses at all after payment.......amanda is zealot a scam artist and continues to Evan 2 years later because puerile want to stick u p for her

And now there's a full thread on fb of women that have either paid and then never any course given to them and no responses at all......or didn't get their supplies or never recieved their certification........has any one actually recieved it after the courses? She's clearly a s scam artist and people need to stop making excuses for her.......she just gives one excuse after another......I'm sorry if your dumb enough to believe her.......and I'm sorry to everyone that's been scammed....something needs done as 2yrs later she's still scamming

I signed up for her training for the online course. Once I paid, she sent me all the paperwork to read. She would take days to respond to emails about questions I had. The work was unorganized an confusing. I finished all the requirements and she said it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get the certification. Never came... After months passed and numerous emails went unanswered, I asked for a refund. She never responded to me. I then left a comment on her facebook page. Some people that were thinking of going through her training commented that this really concerned them. That got her to respond! She said "I will personally send you the certification in the mail. You will receive it in a week." Never received it! She blocked me on facebook and has yet to respond to any of my emails or give me a refund. It is a SCAM! A waste of money and time. Go somewhere else!